it's suzy

Ronald Finger. Start with his Fiero series, it's just nice.

PJ/thesupersnes is my favorite low energy high rambly speedrunner/streamer. https://www.thesupersnes.tv/ the ActRaiser 2 "Difficulty 202" run (the 202nd out of 3 legitimately selectable difficulty levels) and the Dragon View "Grand Memory Clobber" are both weird and interesting

I like Kim Justice ones, learned a lit about European games because of that

Geno7!, not many videos but some really solid explorations and examinations of niche game audio topics, big fan!

The Entire History of the Universe, I hope you like many, many, many hour long videos about increasingly niche theoretical and philosophical questions about the nature of reality and all the weird bullshit our universe is made of!

Sean Seanson You probably already know about Sean Seanson, but this dude is a legend, goes into great detail about lesser known PS1 titles (also has some fuckin' incredible mixes holy shit).

Amelie Doree Really funny, very long detailed coverage of PC-98 erotic Japanese visual novels and finding your place as a niche creator, really good vibes.

I'll have to message you if I come up with more because I know I watch more than these but the names escape me at the moment!

I'm a very big fan of ZFG on Twitch and YouTube. Pretty low energy Ocarina of Time speedruns, hacks and randomisers; mostly randos right now.

https://www.youtube.com/@ZFG for highlights and other videos
https://www.youtube.com/@ZFG_Vods for full stream VODs
https://www.twitch.tv/zfg1 for his Twitch

*inhales*

🎞 Ahoy
https://www.youtube.com/@XboxAhoy
Lots of videos on game series and genres, but the ones I love the most usually start with something like "when was the health bar first introduced?"
There's also lots of gun history that bookends with their appearances in games (I'm not into real guns but it's interesting nevertheless).
Scripted and well produced (heck, he even makes his own soundtracks), but with a smooth narration that just blends with the background.

🎞 Lindsay Ellis
https://www.youtube.com/@LindsayEllisVids
From what I can tell, her most recent works are on Nebula, which I don't have a subscription to, but her essays on film and fictional characters stuck in a way that keeps reminding me to check that service out one day.

🎞 Maggie Mae Fish
https://www.youtube.com/@MaggieMaeFish/
Really enjoy her analysis where she compares 2 pieces of entertainment that are similar in theme, but are different in approach or even in the production behind them.

🎞🔊 GST
https://www.youtube.com/@GSTChannelVEVO
Focuses on celebrating game music and their artists. Apart from a few interviews, most videos are a subtitled chronology of an artist's work accompanied by mixes of their music.
They're short, so I usually only listen to the mixes first and then later replay them to read the text.

🔊 The Insert Credit Show
https://insertcredit.com/show
I subscribe to a lot of active podcasts but it's been a while since I've listened to any of them.
I did start listening to this one recently, and it's a breath of fresh air having something about videogames that isn't editorial.
Instead it's about answering to random questions from the host or listeners within a time limit.
The sound quality in the older episodes isn't very good, and there's also an horrible buzzer which was way too loud in the beginning and don't know when they lowered it, because I just decided to listen to them in reverse order, jumping back up to the newest episode when it releases.

🔊 'Till Death Do Us Blart
https://blart.libsyn.com/
Each year, the hosts watch Paul Blart Mall Cop 2 and record a podcast about their experience watching it. They've been doing this for 9 years.
I've never watched the movies, never planned on doing so, and now I won't out of principle.
One of the episodes was a watchalong and even then I didn't watch it.
I think it just makes listening to this show even more bizarre, and I love it.

Gonna stop here for now haha.

Secret Sleepover Society is my go to chill variety VOD/stream to put on in the background for 2 hour chunks

https://www.youtube.com/@thorhighheels/videos

thorhighheels talks a lot about all sorts of weird small studio games, old horror games and rpgs, the videos are all very chill meanderings about the games and various interesting bits from them

I like AmazHS, variety streamer who does a lot of rougelike content, playing them very fast and loose which makes for lots of good moments. I mostly watch highlights on his youtube channel, especially Slay the Spire content.

Less geared toward what your looking for but I'm still recommending anyways is Explosions & Fire, a chemistry channel about an Australian chemistry PhD creating various explosive chemicals in his backyard shed. Bit more energy/pace so maybe not the best for putting on in the background but I find him very fun to listen to.

https://www.twitch.tv/videochess - extremely esoteric variety streams, very relaxed, lovely community, all genres.
VODs available here:
https://www.youtube.com/@videochessvods/featured

recent stream highlights: the 90s massively-multiplayer virtual world collection Active Worlds, ps2 robot fighting game Alchemic Drive, super mario 64 but it's controlled with a point-and-click interface

Late night my recommendation is twitch.tv/misterradon. He's very chill and plays a bunch of random bullshit you've never heard of, cause he's 100%ing every single N64 game. Conversations go fun places, too. I often put him on late night just to chill to.

twitch.tv/shoujo is also another recommendation =w= She's good for afternoon putting on to veg out to. She plays a whole bunch of random stuff.

Also I stream but I dunno if I'd recommend me lol

Thank you for posting this cuz it overlaps with a lot of what I'm looking for these days! I recommend checking out my dear friend https://www.twitch.tv/sasquatchulous, who specializes in checking out older (and often terrible) games and occasionally also plays newer stuff outfitted with the weirdest mods she can find. Very chill but with a pronounced silly streak.

Pardon if it sounds arrogant, but from what you describe, you may enjoy my streams.

I tend to keep my vibe on the relaxing side. I do casual speedruns (mostly SMZ3 at present), and play a variety of games, both retro and modern. There's a few games, series, and developers I know a thing or two about; when relevant I'll go into detail about them.

If interested: https://www.twitch.tv/forneia

For me, I've liked Spoiler Warning Show, a Let's Play YouTube Channel, where @Campster often is a participant, especially their Bio Shock Infinite Let's Play.

It's a nice, mostly chill conversation to have going in the background

She doesn't stream every day but I gotta shoutout pidgezero_one. She's a huge SMRPG fan and speedrunner and she's currently streaming "Mario RPG Fiesta", a project going through games with some relation to SMRPG, from sharing developers and artists to other games in the Mario series.

authorblues is also pretty neat. He's been streaming a variety for RetroAchievements but he's also a bit of a Bad Games Apologist (Bubsy, Virtual Hydlide, etc.)

Bobbeigh is another speedrunner who recently cracked WR in Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night at AGDQ. He's cool, may be a little higher energy than the last two. Also streams a good variety of stuff, including fighting games from time to time.

Lets see:

(This is a list of youtube accounts, for clarity!)

Decino (classic Doom professional, serenades you with calm on topic commentary of the levels and then wishes you a good day. I literally use his videos to lull me to sleep sometimes.)

Bad Game Hall Of Fame (I've only watched their video on Kowai Shashin, but it left a positive impression and I look forward to watching others.)

Tomatoanus (Extremely well researched explain-throughs of speedruns, with consultation from the runner to make sure the explanation of the various techs are as accurate as possible.)

Authorblues Clips (I really liked his playthroughs of the Questionable Game Design mario world romhacking game jam. Lots of neat bizarre ideas played and commentated through)

Marcel Vos (Roller Coaster Tycoon expert, videos on the details of the systems the game uses, and has long since found a million ways to snap the game right in half)

Bismuth (TAS explanations, notably did the full documentary on the history of the mario 64 ABC Challenge)

Iconoclast 187 (JP retro horror games with self-made translations. Did a full translated lets play of Mizzurna Falls, a JP only playstation one game way ahead of its time. Gave me something to look forward to each week when I really needed one.)

Pannenkoek and uncommentatedpannen (Mario 64 Watch For Rolling Rocks in .5 A presses. Enough said.)

Psymonkey (His Sim Golf lets play is almost Bob Ross esque. Golf course design commentation to relax and sleep to.)

Dashner Design & Restoration - https://youtube.com/@DashnerDesignRestoration?si=Wo1O9fB9QjNxE-hn
He restores old furniture and the way he narrates his videos is really nice and informative to the techniques he uses for restoring furniture.

Midwest Magic Cleaning - https://youtube.com/@MidwestMagicCleaning?si=9AReReyw5XjYf7hy
Cleans hoarded houses and other places, he shows a lot of compassion towards the people he helps which is nice compared to like the actual Hoarders show on tv.

Well There's Your Problem is really good. It's a podcast (with slides) about engineering disasters, where they give all the history and stuff leading up to a disaster. Very good, very funny, informative, and oh boy do they have bullshit tangents. https://www.youtube.com/@welltheresyourproblempodca1465

gonna plug some of my most watched YouTubers, a couple queer friends/faves, and, uh, myself lol

Izzzyzzz is the first person who comes to mind for cursed media. their videos are a bit scripted to get facts and timelines right, but a lot is clearly said off-the-cuff. they have a running series on weird stories, glitches, and scary shit in The Sims, and a whole bunch of videos on older niche games, like The Path and Animal Jam

Cannot be Tamed is really chill, does occasional "what I've been playing" type roundups as well as reviews here and there. she plays a pretty wide variety of stuff but seems to prefer story-driven games and "old" genres like CRPGs and point-and-clicks

Maraganger does a lot of great looks at niche ass indies and games that are generally considered strange, like Hylics and pretty much Suda51's entire catalogue

there's also the good folks over at @indietsushin and their regular livestreams on YouTube, which all focus on the Japanese indie game scene

friends:
first up is @spacevalkyries who you can find just about anywhere. they regularly put on some very chill streams for whatever indie game(s) they're into at the moment. in particular I'd say she loves her some RPGs and calm, comforting games

@ProjectRuby is the first person I thought of when you mentioned you might like to see some more JRPGs cause they're a certified expert at this point. I think they've done full streams of like every Final Fantasy and Digimon World game?

there's also my good friend @DaniLavandula who is on her Official(TM) indie game grind this year. she's started uploading a bunch of demos, VODs, and original indie game stuff to her YouTube channel. she really likes point-and-click, puzzle, and mystery/detective games and is not afraid to read a game down while she's playing it, lol

and then there's me! I haven't been able to stream or make as many videos while I'm adjusting to my new job but hey what can you do. I like to try just about anything, especially smaller, weirder indie games, but my heart ultimately lies with adventure games, puzzle games, and anything narrative-heavy

sorry this got so long, guess it turns out this is my Real wheelhouse LMAO

Good lord this picked up (o_o; )

So yeah all of my recommendations have been said, so I'll just boost them. In no particular order:

Ross Scott (fun deep dives into odd budget titles)
Geno7
Thorhighheels
DisasterBreakdown (very bingeable, and educational)
Izzzyzzz (gotta rep the local creators 🤘)
Sean Swanson
LGR (even just for tech-tales)

and more, but I dont wanna bury you